VizualMobile's mobile-device-management (MDM) technology is acquired by GFI software to boost its profile in the SMB space.
Networking and security software solutions
specialist GFI Software announced that it acquired a cloud-based multi-platform
mobile-device-management solution from U.K.-based mobile device security
services firm VizualMobile. GFI Software plans to pitch the MDM solution to
small and midsize businesses (SMBs) interested in boosting security for their
bring your own device (BYOD) initiatives.
GFI said the technology, which currently
supports Google Android, Apple iOS and Research In Motion's BlackBerry devices,
would continue to be developed by the company. GFI also plans to integrate the
technology into two of its major product platforms, GFI MAX RemoteManagement, a
platform designed for managed-service providers (MSPs), and GFI Cloud, a
Web-based platform for small-business IT administrators. The new technology
should wind its way into MAX later this year and in GFI's cloud platform in
2013, according to a company release.
"We are constantly on the lookout for new
technologies that will help us solve our customers' problems and enhance our
products. Cloud-based mobile-device management is an important market that we
believe is, as yet, relatively underserved in the SMB space, and most of the
solutions that do exist are not designed with MSPs in mind," Alistair Forbes,
general manager of the GFI MAX business unit at GFI Software, said in a
prepared statement. "The acquisition of this technology will strengthen our
products and allow us to address the rapidly growing demand for mobile
management capabilities by SMBs."
VizualMobile leverages cloud technology to
provide a smartphone device management platform designed to help midmarket
businesses secure, track and report on their mobile device assets. The
company's platform provides real-time analysis of smartphone use across
employees, including data transferred, location, violations and usage trends,
as well as the ability to track data usage, calculate data usage costs, track
out-of-office and unauthorized use and alert IT departments about excessive
data usage.
"We see the development of cloud-based
services for small businesses as the way forward for GFI and support of mobile
devices is a priority for us. This acquisition complements our existing anti-malware
and remote-control technologies for Android devices, and the combination of
these three technologies gives us a unique set of capabilities in this area,"
Forbes concluded. "We will be investing in the VizualMobile technology to
continue adding new features to what is already a cool, easy to use,
cloud-based solution to manage mobile devices."
GFI is one of several companies that are reaching
out to small businesses with MDM solutions as organizations scramble to monitor
and secure a growing number of personal mobile devices like smartphones and
tablets that can vastly increase employee productivity but also open up company
networks to security threats and rising data costs. Just this year, AT&T,
Zenprise and Arbua Networks, among others, have launched MDM platforms
targeting midmarket companies.
Nathan Eddy is Associate Editor, Midmarket, at eWEEK.com. Before joining eWEEK.com, Nate was a writer with ChannelWeb and he served as an editor at FierceMarkets. He is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
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